National Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference
November 22-November 24, 2024
8:00 am
Hynes Convention Center, Boston Massachusetts
We offer a variety of services to fit different needs and budgets. We help schools review and create social studies curriculum, we provide professional development for teachers both remotely and in person, and we provide ongoing support and instructional coaching to teachers who are using the Four Question Method.
The first step in working with us is always a listening conversation. We take the time to learn about you, your school, your teachers, and your students. We work with you to define goals and outcomes, and we design a package that meets your goals, your schedule, and your budget.
The partial list below includes examples of work we’ve done for a variety of clients: school districts and district public schools, charter schools and charter management organizations, independent schools, and stand-alone workshops for teachers who sign up individually.
The Four Question Method is a uniquely powerful tool for vertical curriculum alignment. We provide coherent social studies curriculum that builds knowledge while also giving students repeated practice in the skills of narration, interpretation, explanation, and judgment. We also write custom curriculum using your existing materials that meets your state or district content standards.
We can provide an introduction to the Four Question Method in as little time as one hour, remotely or in person. We also offer longer workshops on using the Four Question Method to create unit storyboards, unit questions, and a scope and sequence of lessons for an upcoming unit. Teachers can bring their own units to workshop, and/or we can demonstrate with an existing 4QM curriculum unit.
Teachers who’ve completed our introduction can get more specific practical training with workshops dedicated to each Question. We use materials from our book, From Story to Judgment, and other 4M curriculum to help teachers see how each Question can be used in the classroom to engage students in the intellectual work of social studies. Teachers can also bring their own materials to workshop.
Contact us if you’d like to talk to us about working with 4QM teaching to improve social studies teaching and learning in your school or district.
The 4QM workshop gave our whole department a clear and practical framework for talking about what content will be included and where as we launch our curriculum review. Teachers responded very positively, and we are using the 4QM framework to guide our review and revision process.
Jill Story, History Department Chair, Masconomet Regional High School